


Silver Starlight, Burning Bright

by fae_of_the_rose



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: AU, F/M, faerie tale, no one's named but they're all in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 19:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1870443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fae_of_the_rose/pseuds/fae_of_the_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, there was a hidden kingdom in the woods. There are not many stories of this hidden kingdom, as they were a secret and private people.</p><p>There is one story, however, about a prisoner and jailer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silver Starlight, Burning Bright

**Author's Note:**

> A few months ago, I asked my friends to give me a pairing and a fandom and I'd write a fic in faerie tale style for them. One of my friends asked for Kíli/Tauriel and this is what came out. 
> 
> This is also sorta AU.
> 
> No place but AO3 and my tumblr, fae_of_the_rose, have permission to host this fanfic.

Many years ago, in a land far from our own, there was a forest. This forest was as wide as the ocean and the people who lived within it did not know of the world beyond. They did not know of the mountains to the north or the hills to the south; indeed, they did not even have words for these things. They had words for the leaves of all the trees, different ones for oak and pine and apple, and words for the sound the wind made blowing through these leaves but they had no words for carven stone or open waters.

Now, where there is a people there will be a ruler and the people of the forest had a king, pale and powerful. He looked out for his people and cared for them as a king should, keeping the strangers from other lands out and keeping his people in. “Do not leave the forest,” he warned them, “for the lands outside our borders is dangerous and the people who live there untrustworthy.” And the people obeyed. They stayed within their forest and dealt only with the traders from other lands that they needed to survive.

There was one girl, however, who longed to see what lay beyond the borders of the forest. She was a ward of the king and these were dangerous thoughts but she thought them anyway and did not fear the wrath of the king. To satisfy her curiosity, this daughter of the forest would walk on the tops of the trees and to the parts of the forest where the sky shone through the trees. She would see the sky and the stars and the birds from faraway lands and would tell herself stories about the lands they saw that she could not.

One day, when the girl was no longer a girl but a woman and no longer a ward of the king but his captain of the guard, the forest was sent into an uproar. A strange creature was caught within the borders of the kingdom, a squat creature that was nearly like the tall, slender folk of the forest but was not quite. He spoke the language of the traders but with an odd accent, and they thought him funny and harmless. Still they captured him and brought him before the king.

“Why are you in my lands, strange creature, and what harm do you mean to cause my people?” asked the king.

“I mean no one any harm, your majesty, except those that mean me harm,” replied the creature. “I am a Dwarf of the mountain to the north and I am simply exploring.”

The woodland king did not know what a mountain was and suspected the creature of lying, so he asked again. “Why are you in my lands and what harm do you mean to cause my people?”

“I am a Dwarf of the mountain and an explorer,” repeated the Dwarf. “I mean no harm to anyone. Please, let me go and I will not bother you or your people any longer.” 

But still the king did not believe him and asked again: “Why are you in my lands unless you mean to abuse my people?”

For the third time, the Dwarf replied, “I mean no such thing! I did not even know there were people in these lands. I thought the forest empty and unpopulated. I am a simple explorer, my lord, and did not mean to trespass. Please, let me go.”

The king still did not believe the creature, the Dwarf, and refused to let him go. Instead, he had him taken to the prison and locked away. The Dwarf, he declared, would not be released until he told the truth.

Now, the captain of the guard had seen the audience between the Dwarf and the king and although she believed the Dwarf’s story she was not able to speak up in his defense. All she could do was lock him up. As she was locking him up, she noticed that the Dwarf wore fur and adornments that did not fit with his story of a simple explorer, but perhaps the lands outside the forest valued the explorers of the world.

“Why does your king not believe me?” asked the Dwarf. “I had not harmed anyone or anything in the woods until I trapped a rabbit for my dinner three nights past.”

“My king does not trust the people outside of the forest,” explained the captain, “and you are a strange sort of person.”

“And how many sorts of people do you know here in the forest? We did not know there were any people in here, so I cannot imagine you know all that many sorts.”

The captain shrugged. “We know the traders from the east and the ones from the south,” she explained. “The king sees no reason to know anymore.”

“And you?” The Dwarf looked up at the captain. “Do you agree with your king?”

“He is my king,” she replied. And that was that. But the captain’s girlish curiosity had been sparked by this strange prisoner.

It was several days before the captain had a chance to speak with the prisoner, kept busy as she was with patrols and reports. When she saw him next, he smiled.

“I was worried I had scared you off,” he said with a laugh. “I haven’t seen the same guard twice since I was locked up. Am I truly that frightening?”

“You are strange to us,” explained the captain. “My people do not know what to make of you.”

“Well, they might try making a friend of me. Then again I don’t suppose friends are often made of prisoners.”

The captain smiled, though she tried to hide it. “Do you chatter this incessantly to all your captors?”

The Dwarf smiled, and he did not hide it. “I’ve never had many, so I believe you are the only one.”

The captain felt her face heat up and she hurriedly left the prisoner’s cell. She did not see the way the prisoner watched her as she left or the look on his face.

This time it was only a day before their next meeting, when she was delivering his dinner. He smiled and thanked her and she thought that this time he would not say anything.

She was wrong, of course.

“What do you call yourselves, the people of the forest?” he asked. “I am a Dwarf and I live beneath the mountains. The Men are tall and live wherever. But we have no name for the people of the woods, for we did not know you existed. What do you call yourselves?”

“We are Elves,” she replied. To her surprise, he laughed.

“Elves! Is that all? I have met Elves before, beyond this wood and along the river. They are nothing like you, or perhaps you are nothing like them.” The Dwarf smiled at her. “Have you ever met the Elves on the river?”

“I did not know there were Elves beyond our borders.”

“You would like them, I think.”

Again the Dwarf’s words surprised the captain and she found herself walking away again. Again she did not see him as he watched her leave.

The next several weeks passed thusly. The captain would deliver the Dwarf’s dinner (her fellow guards were afraid of the prisoner) and the Dwarf would ask questions. She would answer them and they would chat for a moment or two before the Dwarf would say something and it would leave her speechless and she would leave. And not once did she notice the look on his face when he watched her go.

Two or so months after the Dwarf’s arrival, the woodland king had him brought before him once more. Once more he asked the Dwarf his purpose in the forest and once again the Dwarf responded. Once more, the Dwarf was dragged down to the cells and locked away. This time, however, he bruised and bleeding and the captain was ordered to tend to his injuries.

“Why are you bruised?” she asked, pressing a cold rag to a cut on his head. “Did you anger the king?”

“If I did, it was not intentional,” replied the Dwarf. “But the guards who took me up, they did not like my face and took it upon themselves to pretty me up for your king.”

The captain frowned. “Who are they? Tell me, and they will be punished.”

The Dwarf shook his head and said, “It is fine. I have had worse. Had they truly wanted a fight, I could have taken them.” And he grinned his cheeky grin. For once, the captain did not blush at his smile.

“But you are a--”

“A prisoner,” he finished, and his smile dimmed a little. “My uncle, were he in the place of the king, would have encouraged the guards if a prisoner was not giving the answers he wanted. It is the way with Dwarves. I am fine, captain. Do not worry about me.” Now his smile brightened again. “I heard talk of a celebration tonight. Are you attending?”

The captain shook her head. “I have offered to cover for your usual guards tonight,” she explained, “for tonight is the Celebration of Starlight, a night of memory and love. Your usual guards are both married and I am not. They are with their spouses tonight.”

The Dwarf chuckled to himself for a moment, though the captain did not understand why. “Is starlight so precious to the Wood-Elves?” he asked.

“To some it is.” And now the captain smiled. “It is my favorite,” she confessed. “When I was a girl I would sneak away from the castle and walk in the treetops and in the clearings of the forest. I would watch the clouds and the sun and the moon and I make up stories for them but I would always look to the stars, for the stars told me stories instead.”

“I am sorry that you must miss a night celebrating something so dear to you, then,” the Dwarf said. “I am afraid I am not very good company for an Elf.”

“You are good company for this Elf,” the captain found herself saying and to her surprise, it was true.

That night began a new custom for the captain and her prisoner. Their conversations no longer ended when she was overcome with embarrassment; indeed, she no longer felt embarrassed by the Dwarf and his questions. Or perhaps he no longer asked questions that could embarrass her. Instead, he told her stories of the lands he had seen, of his home beneath the mountain, and of the strange folk he had met. His stories ensnared the captain, and she took over a shift guarding him permanently.

Another two months passed. Again, the woodland king had the Dwarf brought before him and again he had him sent back to the prison when he did not give the king the answers he wanted. This time, however, the captain went to her king with a question.

“Why do you not release the Dwarf?” she asked. “You have asked him your questions several times now and he has given you the same answer each time. Why do you still distrust him?”

“You have spent a lot of time with the creature and so I will excuse your impertinence,” the king replied. “But to answer your question, I do not release him because he is lying. He may have meant no harm to our people but he is no simple explorer. He is lying, and he will not be freed until he tells me the truth.”

The captain nodded, dissatisfied with the answer but knowing that further argument was futile. She instead returned to the prison and sat near the Dwarf’s door.

“My king thinks you are lying,” she told him. “He claims that you are not what you claim to be.”

“I have claimed to be nothing but a Dwarf and an explorer,” replied the Dwarf.

“He believes you are more than a simple explorer.”

The Dwarf sighed and a strange sort of melancholy stole over his features, usually so bright. “If I was ever anything more, that is in the past. I swear to you, I am only that which you see before you: a Dwarf, far from home and captive. Nothing more, nothing less.” 

They did not talk that night nor the night after. Things returned to normal on the third night, however, and for many nights after that. Barely two weeks had passed, however, before the Dwarf took ill with a fever.

This frightened the Elves of the woods for their kind did not take ill often and never as suddenly as the Dwarf seemed to. Their remedies did not help him, and he was moved from the prison to the infirmary three days later.

The captain, though she tried to hide it, was concerned for the Dwarf. He slept more than he ate and never ate much. She insisted on staying by his side in the infirmary and her presence soothed the Elven healers’ nerves. They had never treated a Dwarf before, after all, and were frightened.

“We must send for other healers, my lord,” she told the king one night. “The Dwarf will die if we do not!”

“I will not have strange folk wandering my woods and invading my kingdom,” he declared. “Not for the sake of one strange creature.”

“He is a Dwarf, and he deserves to live.” But there would be no arguing with the king. If he would not allow others into their lands to heal the Dwarf, then the captain would go and find them and their medicine and bring it back, she decided, and she began to prepare for her journey in secret.

But of course no journey is ever in secret and she was discovered by the prince of the woodland realm before she had gotten supplies together. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“I am going to find medicine and heal the Dwarf,” she replied.

“My father does not trust you and has ordered that you be watched as carefully as the Dwarf,” the prince informed her. “He feels you have been corrupted by such a strange creature.”

“Perhaps I have.” And to the captain’s surprise she did not mind being thought of as corrupted, for corruption brought friendship and light and stories from distant lands. Yes, the Dwarf was her friend and she did not know how she did not notice it before. “But I must help him. He is harmless, and we have done nothing but harm him.”

The prince shook his head. “If you leave, my father will allow the Dwarf to die and then where will you be? No, my friend. You cannot go. I will go in your stead.”

This surprised the captain. “But you do not care for the Dwarf!”

“No, but I care for you and you for him. You have long been my friend, captain, from the time we were young children until now. It is only right that I act where you cannot, and bring you medicine for your Dwarf.” And the prince would hear no arguments and left that very night.

The captain was at once annoyed at her friend and relieved, for she did not truly want to abandon the Dwarf to the whims of her king. She returned to her post by his bedside, pleased to see that he was awake. “You were gone,” he murmured.

“I was attending to some personal matters,” she explained. “I am sorry.”

The Dwarf smiled. “I thought you had gone to walk in starlight and would no longer have any use for a Dwarf.”

“I have no use for you now. But you are my friend and I would never leave you.”

“A friend?” The Dwarf’s smile brightened, though it was nothing like his smiles of old. “You consider me a friend?”

The captain nodded.

“Then I am content,” he murmured, closing his eyes, “for that is more than I had ever hoped for. I am content to be your friend, captain of the starlight, and love you from afar.”

The captain gaped. Love? “Surely you are delirious,” she insisted. “I am your jailer. How can you love me?”

“I have loved you since I first saw you. The other guards noticed, I think, for I would watch you as you left and would not smile for them. But you consider me a friend, and that is enough for me.”

The captain could think of no response, though none was needed as the Dwarf fell asleep once more. The Dwarf loved her. The Dwarf, who told stories and laughed and brought excitement into her life, loved her despite their positions. She was a captain of the guard and he was a prisoner of her king. It should have been impossible.

But it was not, and the more she thought on it, the more she realized that the Dwarf was truly more than a friend; she, too, was in love.

She told no one of this revelation, not even the Dwarf himself, for fear of being sent away. Surely if the king had spies watching her every move simply for befriending the Dwarf, confessing her love for him would not end well. So she hid her love away and convinced everyone she was nothing more than a friend to the Dwarf.

Weeks passed. The Dwarf did not get better, but the healers of the Elves kept him from getting worse. There were whispers, however, whispers that said that the Dwarf’s illness would take its toll and he would not live more much longer. It was only to be expected, they said. He was not of the forest. Why should he live in it?

The captain ignored such rumors and did not encourage the Dwarf when he began to believe them. It was her turn, now, to tell him stories of the forest and of herself, her turn to bring a smile to his face. She did not expect it to stave off the inevitable, but it would make his last days happy.

One day, a good day for the Dwarf, when he had energy and strength enough to sit up a little and laugh with the captain, the king and the prince entered the infirmary. The prince had clearly just returned home from his trek to the lands beyond the woods, and he held a small bottle in one hand.

“This will help the Dwarf,” he informed them and passed the bottle to the healers. “It was given to me by his uncle, the King Under the Mountain.”

“I knew you were hiding the truth from us, creature,” the king said. “Why did you lie?”

“I never lied. My uncle is the king but I am not the prince,” replied the Dwarf. “That title belongs to my brother, as it always had. I am nothing more than a Dwarf, and have not been the prince since I left home months ago.” He took the medicine offered to him and swallowed. 

The captain was too stunned to speak so the prince asked, “Why did you leave?”

“I did not want to marry the one they had chosen for me. My heart did not belong to anyone under the mountain and they would not hear of it. I left, then, to find my heart.” He glanced at the captain. “And I have. I am dying, but I have found my heart and I am content.” The captain flushed.

“Then it would not please you to know that a company of Dwarves and healers are waiting for you just beyond the borders of the forest?” asked the king, ignoring the implications of the Dwarf and his captain. “My son says they will not leave without you, and the letter from your uncle says that he is sorry for his actions.”

“Or rather Mother has made him sorry.” The Dwarf sighed. “I cannot make the journey to your borders alone, however, and so I cannot go to my family.”

“I will go with you.” The captain stood. “You have been in my care for these past six months and I will see to it that you are cared for until you are reunited with your family.”

The king turned to her and raged, “You will do no such thing! If the Dwarf cannot make the trip on his own, then he shall not make the trip. I am the king, and that is my decision.”

To the surprise of everyone, it was the prince who spoke up next. “And if it were me, father? If I were in the position of the Dwarf, held captive and sick unto death, and a troupe of healers were near yet my captors would not release me? What would you do?”

The king found he could not argue with his son and ordered that a caravan be made for the Dwarf and the captain. “Though she will not be a captain much longer,” he warned. The captain found she did not care. Her Dwarf was going to live!

The journey to the edge of the forest was not a long one, though the captain found she wished it was for she knew that when they arrived at the Dwarven camp, she would be forever parted from her love. He was asleep when they arrived and asleep when she left, and that, she felt, was that. She did not return to the castle, now stripped of her rank, and instead built a small cottage near the edge of the woods where she had last seen her love. The stars were clearer here, and it was a comfort to know that these stars were the same ones that shone over the mountain home of the Dwarves. The prince visited regularly, much to the anger of his father, but his trip to the mountain realm had changed the prince and he was no longer comfortable living a life apart.

A year and a day after the departure of the ailing Dwarf Prince, the former captain opened her door to find a pair of Dwarves, dressed in fine leathers, on her doorstep. “We have come seeking the captain of the Elvenking’s guard,” said one, “for our prince wishes to speak with her.”

“I am no longer a captain but I will speak with your prince all the same,” she replied, and her heart began to fill. Surely the Dwarf could not have returned for her. “Take me to him.”

In a camp not far from her little cottage, the Dwarf prince that had so long been kept in her king’s cells sat next to a fire, the only sign of his long illness a little weakness in the knees, or so she was told. “I have missed you, captain,” he said with a smile, “though you are no longer a captain if I have heard correctly and I hope I have, for I’ve a gift for you.” He pulled out a thin silver chain with shining white jewels hanging from it. 

“I know you do not love me,” he began, unable to meet her eyes, “but I find myself unable to forget you. I will love you to the end of my days and I wish to present you with this necklace as a symbol of that love. You do not have to return it, nor do you have to accept it. I simply could not resist any longer.”

It was not until she had him in front of her again that the young woman who was once a captain realized how much she had missed him. Smiling, she took the necklace from the Dwarf and secured it around her neck. “I am glad to see you, for I have something to tell you.”

He looked up. “What is it?”

And the Elf leaned down and kissed the Dwarf, and the two were never again apart.


End file.
